11th Michigan Infantry

11th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment
Michigan state flag
Active	August 24, 1861 – September 30, 1864
Disbanded	October 11, 1864
Country	United States
Allegiance	Union
Type	Infantry
Size	Regiment
Engagements	American Civil War Battle of Stones River Battle of Davis's Cross Roads Battle of Chickamauga Battle of Missionary Ridge Battle of Rocky Face Ridge Battle of Resaca Battle of Pickett's Mill Battle of Kennesaw Mountain Battle of Ruff's Station Battle of Peachtree Creek Battle of Utoy Creek
Commanders
Colonel	William L. Stoughton
Lt. Colonel	Melvin Mudge

American Civil War

The 11th Michigan Volunteer Infantry, initially known as Colonel May’s Independent Regiment, was a unit in the Union army during the American Civil War. The regiment fought with the Army of the Cumberland in numerous battles, including Stones River, Chickamauga, and Missionary Ridge.

The regiment was recruited in southern Michigan between April and September 1861, with the majority of the soldiers coming from St. Joseph County. The unit formally mustered into the Union army between August 24 and September 11. It formed independent from the state government, as allowed for by the War Department, but fell under Michigan’s control when the Federal authorization for independent units was revoked. The regiment received its formal designation as the 11th regiment on October 11. The soldiers elected their officers, selecting William J. May, the former proprietor of the White Pigeon Railroad Dining Hall, as colonel. U.S. district attorney William Lewis Stoughton, a rising star in the Republican Party, was elected lieutenant colonel.

The 11th Michigan trained at White Pigeon before deploying to Kentucky on December 9, 1861, with 1,004 men and officers. Far from the front lines, the unit saw little active service, but suffered dearly from smallpox and measles at Bardstown, Kentucky that winter, losing more than seventy men to disease. Colonel May, suffering from poor health, resigned effective April 1, raising Stoughton to colonel in his place. Melvin Mudge was promoted to fill the vacancy at lieutenant colonel.

The Michiganders went on railroad guard duty in March 1862 as the Union army advanced into Tennessee following Ulysses S. Grant’s captures of Forts Henry and Donelson. The regiment’s first taste of active military operations came when Confederate cavalryman John Hunt Morgan launched a raid through Tennessee and Kentucky in July. The 11th regiment, in conjunction with other Federal units, was dispatched on a wild goose chase that culminated in a narrow miss at surrounding Morgan’s entire force at Paris, Kentucky. The regiment, in conjunction with other units, later caught up with a detachment of Morgan’s troopers at Gallatin, Tennessee, on August 13, 1862, firing the first volleys in the regiment’s history. The Michiganders claimed to have inflicted numerous casualties on Morgan’s force, though Morgan’s subordinate Basil Duke (who was not present) later denied any Confederate losses. The Michiganders and their Federal counterparts pillaged Gallatin while there, embittering Morgan and hardening his attitude toward Union civilians.